Dr. Sheldon Cooper
Sheldon Lee Cooper is the main protagonist and antagonist of CBS' hit sitcom The Big Bang Theory. He was played by Jim Parsons. Personality Sheldon is viewed to be an intelligent, arrogant, witty, selfish, and nerdy man. He is arrogant at times, stemming from the fact that he thinks that his intelligence is superior to other people's intellect (which admittedly it normally is). Despite having an IQ of 187, he lacks nearly any form of social skills. He is also affected by multiple crippling problems such as severe OCD and almost manic germophobia, he also has personality problems with others touching him and often slips into acting like a child when facing emotional or stressful situations, that remind him of unresolved childhood trauma. Sheldon dislikes change and prefers everything to run on his terms. Despite this underneath it all Sheldon is a good man at heart. His main antagonism comes from him genuinely not understanding that his behavior is wrong or offensive, or him being held back by his severe limitations. Sheldon is also borderline asexual, following years of suppression, he doesn't really feel sexual attraction any longer, although recently he has began working against this for his girlfriend's sake. He's is also not particularly romantic or rather he is but in his own way, but has no problems with companionship. Heroic Actions Although not his standard characterization, Sheldon has demonstrated many moments of kindness, compassion, generosity, and even bravery. Season One *In "The Grasshopper Experiment", following Raj being incredibly obnoxious and rude to his date (he was drunk at the time), Sheldon manages to take her off his hands and thus save her night, simply by being kind and using his vast knowledge of Indian culture. *In "The Loobenfeld Decay", goes to unnatural lengths to create a perfect lie, all to protect Penny's feelings. *In "The Nerdvana Annihilation", following Penny rudely insulting Leonard's toys and collectables while angry leads him to sinking into depression and almost giving away his entire cherished collection, in a rare moment of genuine anger Sheldon calls Penny out on just how much of a hypocrite she is as she herself collects similarly childish girls' toys, thus forcing her to apologize to Leonard. However, it is uncertain whether it was Leonard giving away his cherished collection or Sheldon's horror at the thought of losing them that had caused Sheldon to react this way, thus this may have been anti-heroic. Season Two *In "The Codpiece Topology", following advice from Penny, Sheldon agreed to put his hatred and disdain for Leslie Winkle aside and support Leonard's relationship with her as a friend. Although he ultimately ended up inadvertently sparking the immediate end of the relationship when he mocked loop quantum gravity and caused Leslie to realize Leonard didn't believe it either, Sheldon did still genuinely try to and succeed at cheering Leonard up in the aftermath. *In "The Bath Item Gift Hypothesis", following him stressing over giving Penny a gift for Christmas as he's worried it would be better than the one she got him, thus placing her at a disadvantage, Sheldon bought around twenty different baskets of fancy Toiletries, planning to give her the one that was closest in price to her gift to him. After finding out that her gift is an autograph from his hero, Leonard Nimoy (as well as some of his DNA apparently), Sheldon gives Penny all twenty of the boxes. Upon reacting to her shock he decides it's not enough, so he voluntarily overcomes his fear of touch to hug her as to say thank you. *In "The Financial Permeability", Sheldon happily lends Penny a lot of money to help her through a rough spot, and then proceeds to defy her expectations of him by not caring that she is in debt to him. He later gives Leonard a rare moment of praise for his bravery and selflessness and admits he was wrong and says Leonard is like the heroes in their fantasy novels. *In "The Cooper-Nowitzki Theorem", he obtains a slightly crazed fan, who forces him to work almost non-stop, thus making him give up all his leisure activities he loves, mostly without complaint, however when she criticizes his friends telling him they're holding him back, Sheldon stands up for them by casually replying, "I prefer to think of it as I'm pulling them forward." Season Three *In "The Creepy Candy Coating Corollary", upon discovering Wil Wheaton had a genuine reason for not turning up at a science fiction convention several years early (this made Sheldon hate him as he gave up a lot to go there just to see him). Sheldon is overcome with guilt at his desire to crush him the card game they're playing, and throws the game. This does not last long however as it is then revealed Wil was simply lying to win the game. *In "The Adhesive Duck Deficiency", upon Penny falling in the shower and fracturing her shoulder, Sheldon rushes to her rescue, and overcomes his fears to drive her to the hospital. There he at least attempts to comfort her (it may look creepy, but he's trying) and later somewhat unwillingly agrees to sing Soft Kitty (the same song his mother sung to him when he was sick) to her after she asks him to (she was a bit woozy due to the drugs to ease the pain). *In "The Maternal Congruence", following Leonard being overcome with sadness about his mother, Sheldon tries to comfort him by telling him he may have lost his biological family but he still has his surrogate family (Sheldon). *In "The Psychic Vortex", following Sheldon gaining the attention of a woman called Martha, who was unaware of his asexuality, he likewise was unaware of her attraction, but never the less enjoyed her company. She eventually asked if she could stay the night in Sheldon's room. Sheldon happily complied and gave her his room, him going to sleep in Leonard's. This is quite a good moment for him, as he often demonstrated a child like obsession with his room. *In "The Spaghetti Catalyst", despite only getting to know her because she was dating Leonard, Sheldon shows a great level of care by going to great lengths to maintain his friendship with Penny after she and Leonard break up. *Similarly to "The Psychic Vortex" in the "The Plimpton Stimulation", Sheldon is more than willing to give up his bedroom to his guest Elizabeth Plimpton, showing that underneath it all Sheldon is a true southern gentleman. *In "The Staircase Implementation", it shows a flashback of how Sheldon and Leonard met, revealing how they became friends. Leonard reworked the experimental rocket fuel he had been working on to use in Howards model rocket. Upon glancing over his calculations, Sheldon instantly spotted a flaw that Leonard missed. However mistaking this for merely another display of superiority Leonard ignored him, causing the fuel to go critical. Leonard tried to get it out of the building, via the elevator. However, having calculated what was going to happen, Sheldon rushed up, grabbed the volatile chemical, calmly placed it on the ground, pushed Leonard out of the elevator, then pushed the close door button, and calmly exited the elevator. The rocket fuel exploded about five seconds later. Thus he not only realized what was wrong in seconds and calculated how long they had, but risked his own life to save Leonard's. And this is the same guy who's who happily admits to being a coward. And to top it all off he didn't even report them for messing around with volatile chemicals. Season Four *In "The Apology Insufficiency", following Sheldon accidentally ruining Howard's chance to work with an important laser, he spends the rest of the episode guilt-ridden, trying to make it up to him, finally succeeding by giving him his spot on their couch, which he considers his one point of stability in a chaotic universe. He may even have let Howard keep it, if he hadn't kept bragging about how good it was. *In "The Cohabitation Formulation", Sheldon tries to comfort Penny by giving her tea over Leonard having a new girlfriend. *In "The Agreement Dissection", Although unwilling Sheldon goes along with the girl's girls night, including ending up dancing with Amy, despite his unwillingness to do so. He also doesn't react badly when she forcibly kisses him while drunk, despite his psychotic fear of germs, and easily forgives her the next day for going to far while drunk. In the same episode, Priya picked apart his roommate agreement, thus making it void. His friends mercilessly milked this for all its worth, at the end of the episode he puts a stop to all this by forcing Leonard to sign a fixed version of the roommate agreement, threatening to reveal his relationship to Priya's incredibly strict parents if they don't. Season Five *In "The Skank Reflex Analysis", following his friends being not motivated to compete in the paintball tournament due to all the problems in their life at the moment. In a parody of a heroic sacrifice, Sheldon runs out to get himself shot, to motivate his team to win the tournament. *In "The Pulled Groin Extrapolation", Sheldon strikes Leonard when he misunderstood his comments to mean that he's been sleeping with Amy, showing he's willing to fight to defend his relationship with Amy, quite impressive for a coward. *In "The Good Guy Fluctuation", with it being Halloween, his friends basically milk it for everything to terrify him, his own pranks failing due to his obsessive tendency. At the end of episode, he finally gets revenge, scaring the living daylights of Leonard. *In "The Isolation Permutation", Sheldon is willing to overcome his phobia of germs and touch to comfort Amy when she is feeling depressed at her friends ditching her. He also demonstrates an uncharacteristic level of caring for another throughout the episode (not that he is uncaring, he just doesn't often openly show it). *In "The Flaming Spittoon Acquisition", when feeling his relationship threatened, Sheldon is finally willing to ask Amy to be his girlfriend. They later sign a relationship agreement, although self serving and emotionally detached, by his standards it's incredibly sweet and generous, something Amy recognizes. *In "The Shiny Trinket Maneuver", Sheldon admits he was wrong to be so dismissive of Amy's achievements, and buys her a diamond tiara to apologize. Season Six *In "The Decoupling Fluctuation", upon learning Penny is thinking about breaking up with Leonard again, Sheldon breaks into her apartment to talk to her, although initially claiming he only cares because he doesn't like change, at the end before leaving, he finally shows his true feelings and simply says "Penny, please don't hurt my friend." Saying the first thing that actually touched her. *In "The 43 Peculiarity", Howard and Raj become obsessed in learning what Sheldon does for twenty minutes in the basement every day, something no one else knows. This leads them breaking into the room, spending hours analyzing "43" which they find written on his blackboard, in the end they steal a camera and set it up in the room so they can spy on them. They then watch him apparently use a machine to open up a portal to another universe and accidentally let a monster in that starts eating his face. Sheldon then emerges behind them dropping the prop monster on the computer scaring the wits out of them. He then reveals he found the camera and set up the video to teach them a lesson for invading his privacy, revealing that what he does down there helps him cope with all the troubles he faces everyday with all the social conventions he doesn't understand. When they ask what he does and what 43 means, he angrily tells them they don't need to know, deserve to know and will never know what he does down there. The irony being, the ending implies he would have simply told them if they asked him. *In "The Fish Guts Displacement", upon arriving at her apartment and finding Amy sick, Sheldon decides to leave, Amy points out their relationship agreement states that if one is sick the other has to look after them. Sheldon calmly tells her that it only applies to him and leaves, but he doesn't get any further than a few feet away before turning and going back to her, he admits he did agree to help her if she was ever sick and ends by saying "Additionally, you're my girlfriend and I care about your well-being." One of the nicest things he's ever said to anybody. Likewise he spends the rest of the episode overcoming his fears of both germs and touch to look after her, an incredible display of kindness for him. *In "The Cooper/Kripke Inversion", when pressed about his relationship, he admits he has always had a problem with touching and being intimate with others, but reveals he has been trying to overcome that for Amy's sake. He also admits it's possible he will one day have a physical relationship with her. *In "The Tangible Affection Proof", Sheldon goes to lengths to find a gift for Amy for Valentine's Day, although against the concept itself. In the end, however Amy decides to call the whole event off and just spend the night together watching one of his Sci-Fi films, as that's what he wants the most. Sheldon is overcome with this gesture, calling it the nicest gift he's ever received. Amy tells him he can take back what ever he got her, as she knows gift giving makes him uncomfortable, however Sheldon disagrees, telling her she deserves this. He then reveals that his gift is he's made her his first contact in the event of an emergency, something that deeply touches Amy, over how much trust he's giving her. Thus showing, although he's unwilling, he does know what's important to her. *In "The Proton Resurgence", upon discovering his hero Professor Arthur Jefferys (an actual scientist who appeared on a children's tv show teaching science when he was a child and is now forced to do kids birthday parties to make ends meet despite being in his eighties) no longer wants to be Professor Proton as it has brought him nothing, Sheldon reveals the very reason he became a scientist was because Arthur inspired him to be and tells him all his, Leonard's (he joins Sheldon as he's also a fan) and all other scientists inspired by him, success rests upon Arthur's shoulders. This makes the old man feel better. He later goes with Arthur to the hospital when Arthur's pacemaker malfunctions, and tries to make him feel better by singing Soft Kitty to him. *In "The Love Spell Potential", following their friends accidentally mocking Amy and Sheldon's relationship, while playing Dungeons and Dragons (by casting a love spell on their characters) causes Amy to run off saddened. Although somewhat unwilling Sheldon goes after her to make her feel better. After being told they think their relationship's a joke, he tells her he doesn't feel their relationship is a joke, when asked whether or not they would ever have an intimate relationship, although slightly unwilling Sheldon admits that before her he was never interested in having an intimate relationship with anyone, and now he considers it a possibility. He goes on to tell her that although it doesn't seem like it, to him what they had is extremely intiment, Amy admits she knows, but wishes they could have more. Sheldon manages to cheer her up slightly by pointing out that they had only know each other for three years and they were already in bed together (or rather on Sheldon's bed together), making her laugh. Amy then decided to go back, however Sheldon stopped her, and insisted they continue playing the game together, enacting the love scene, Dungeons and Dragons style. And thus alone in his room, away from judgement, he gave her a sort of virtual intimacy (he was even willing to role again when she got a throw she didn't like, and as he's a stickler for rules in games, that's quite impressive). The two continue playing for quite a long time. Season Seven * In "The Cooper Extraction", Sheldon travels back home to Texas to help his pregnant sister have her baby. Although not particularly happy with having to do this, he continues through till the end. It is also revealed in the same episode that Sheldon had made Amy's picture his screensaver (or rather part of a collage of images, but she's still there) and the rest of group realize that if they had never met him that they wouldn't have each other, as knowing him led to most of the relationships forming. *In "The Locomotive Manipulation", for Valentine's Day, Amy proposes that they spend it by having dinner on a romantic train journey, promising something they can both enjoy. Sheldon agrees as he loves trains, but while there he meets up with another passenger who loves trains as much as he does, and making a new friend spends most the time with him, making Amy jealous. Eventually she confronts him about what was supposed to be their romantic evening, however this angers Sheldon as he never actually agreed to that and calls her out on whether this was really only for her benefit. Admitting it to be true, Amy tells him she deserves romance, annoyed Sheldon proceeds to mock several romantic customs before suddenly arriving on kissing. At which point he kisses Amy, suddenly striking an equilibrium in what is the first time he kissed her, they emerge out of it with tensions resolved and uncertain how to truly react. Now in a new mindset, Sheldon asks Amy to join him for the remainder of the journey, hitting a compromise between the couple as Sheldon gets to enjoy the train and Amy gets his company and attention. *In "The Proton Transmogrification", following his idol Professor Proton dying, Leonard tries to comfort Sheldon, Sheldon claims to be fine, but over time his true feelings slip. Having a breakdown, he decides to skip the Star Wars movie marathon, and locks himself in his room. Falling asleep, he dreams Professor Proton has come to visit him to act as his force mentor, while there talking Sheldon reveals why he's so sad, as he lost his grandfather when he was five, and his father when he was fourteen, Professor Proton was the last man left he had to look up to, and now he's gone too. The dream Professor Proton tells Sheldon it's okay to miss them, but it's important to appreciate those he still has, Sheldon tells him he does appreciate them, but Arthur asks him if he really does? And if he lets them know he does? Waking from his dream, Sheldon's first response is to go and give Leonard a warm hug, suggesting he plans to appreciate his friends more from now on. *In "The Gorilla Dissolution", following Raj meeting the girl he had been dating out with someone else, Sheldon agreed to cancel seeing the film they had gone together to watch, took Raj back to his home to make him some tea, he was also annoyed to find he didn't have any Indian tea. Through talking together he helped Raj realize that his problem wasn't other women, but his own desperation and fear of being alone. Similar Heroes *Peter Griffin (Family Guy) *Homer Simpson (The Simpsons) *Eric Cartman (South Park) *Naruto Uzumaki (Naruto) *Stan Smith (American Dad!) *Bender (Futurama) *Barney Stinson (How I Met Your Mother) *Spike (Buffy the Vampire Slayer) Trivia *It is revealed that Sheldon has 212 friends on Facebook. *He does not like whistling. *He has perfected "glow in the dark fish". *He fears dogs, nets, birds and the sight of blood. *He likely has parts of Obsessive-compulsive disorder and Asperger's Syndrome. *Jim Parsons has won two Emmy Awards and a Golden Globe Award for his portrayal of Sheldon. 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